Green River Gears Up for Tourist Season

The city of Green River is busy with spring activities and gearing up for the tourist season. Mayor Glen Johnson said, "They are building a new Holiday Inn adjacent to the John Wesley Powell River Museum. When this motel is finished it will give Green River 660 motel rooms. We have approximately a 60 percent occupancy rate year round.

"The Utah Department of Transportation plans on closing our bridge in October for needed repairs. The businesses in town wanted the work to be done after the peak tourist season. It will close soon after Melon Days and will be ready for light traffic by Thanksgiving.

"We are planning a ribbon cutting ceremony soon for our new water treatment plant which was recently completed. It has just been put into production and we are excited about it. Our $2 million sewer project is basically complete as well. The sewer ponds have air pumped into them now and the smell has improved dramatically.

"The water situation for Green River City is OK. We take 100 percent of our water from the Green River. Green River City is fortunate to have first water rights, prior water rights for the Green River.

"Our watermelon growers are ready to plant. Some of them raise the plants themselves and some get them from nurseries. They put the plant in the ground and cover it with a hot cap for a week or so. Then they tear a hole in the top of the hot cap and when the plant begins to poke through they remove the cap entirely. This process gives the growers a two-three week head start on the growing season.

"The Green River Annexation issue is now before the Utah Supreme Court to decide. Our city attorney Gerald Kinghorn and Dave Blackwell, county attorney argued the case. Emery County was well represented that day. The commissioners were all there and the sheriff and some of his deputies. The only people from Grand County that showed up was one person from their city council and their lawyer.

"I was proud of Emery County and their show of support for this issue. It was quite a process. I had never been to a supreme court proceeding before, I was pretty impressed. They said they can take up to a year to decide the case, but our attorney thinks we could hear from them at any time. He said he has a good feeling about this which of course doesn't mean anything. We'd like to see this issue resolved," said Mayor Johnson.